Robotic-assisted hysterectomy advances with EMBRACE GYN trial

Robotic-assisted hysterectomy is gaining momentum as an important minimally invasive option, and West Penn Hospital is helping lead that effort as one of clinical sites participating in Medtronic’s EMBRACE GYN trial.

In this interview, Sarah M. Crafton, MD, surgeon at Allegheny Health Network, explains the team’s role as the first US site to perform a hysterectomy in the trial and their goal of expanding access to safer, faster-recovery surgical options. She also outlines how the investigational platform may broaden future robotic choices and why optimized minimally invasive surgery is especially valuable for patients with gynecologic cancer.

Contemporary OB/GYN:

Please provide an overview of the hysterectomy performed with the robotic-assisted surgery system.

Sarah M Crafton, MD:

Yeah, so we are 1 of 5 clinical sites that are enrolling patients in the EMBRACE GYN trial, which is sponsored by Medtronic. This is investigating their robotic surgery platform. We had the good fortune here at West Penn to be the first location in the country to perform the hysterectomy on the trial, and since then have so far done 17 surgeries between myself and my partners. And we're really excited to increase the access for minimally invasive surgery for our patients.

Contemporary OB/GYN:

What are the benefits of this surgical method?

Crafton:

While there's no head-to-head comparison about methods of minimally invasive surgery, specifically robotic surgery platforms in general. Smaller incisions, shorter hospital time, less risk of transfusion, and infection are all things that have been cited and identified before for minimally invasive surgery compared to the traditional laparotomy or large incision approach.

Contemporary OB/GYN:

How will the clinical trial expand on this data?

Crafton:

Yeah, so right now there's only one FDA-approved robotic surgery platform made by Intuitive, it's called the Da Vinci.And so, Medtronic's goal is to create another robotic surgery platform. So, this is one of the trials they are doing to seek FDA approval. This is a robotic surgery platform that's already used as standard of care in other parts of the world, but they're collecting the data for the United States.

Contemporary OB/GYN:

What is the importance of providing optimal robotic surgery to patients with gynecological cancer?

Crafton:

For those patients with gynecologic cancer, we feel the smaller, shorter surgeries that lead to improved outcomes and less risk ultimately have patients do longer in the end by decreasing their surgical risk directly, but also for those patients who are in adjuvant treatment with chemo or radiation, they can get to those next portions of their treatment faster by having a less complicated recovery process.

Disclosure: Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc.

Reference

AHN West Penn first in country to perform hysterectomy with new robotic-assisted surgery system as part of investigative clinical trial. Allegheny Health Network. November 7, 2025. Accessed November 17, 2025. https://www.ahn.org/newsroom/press-releases/press-release?pr=ahn-west-penn-first-in-country-to-perform-hysterectomy-with-new-robotic-assisted-surgery-system-as-part-of-investigative-clinical-trial.